Magick, Strange Drugs, and Draughts of Wizard Wine: Examining Aleister Crowley’s Ceremonial Use of Peyote to produce Spiritual vision, Ecstasy, and Insight (ESSWE7, 2019) (original) (raw)

Abstract

In 1898, Aleister Crowley began searching for the ‘Elixir Vitæ of the physical Alchemists’, which transforms the base metal (i.e. ‘normal perception’ of life) to silver (i.e. ‘poetic conception’ of life). During a trip to Mexico in 1900, Crowley discovered peyote, the mescaline-containing psychedelic ‘divine cactus’. Like many of the classical psychedelics, peyote has been used for millennia as a psychoactive sacrament in native tribal ceremonies of healing and religious worship, and has also been traditionally used to attain visionary contact with guiding spirits. Crowley, who once wrote that ‘ceremonial intoxication constitutes the supreme ritual of all religions’, went on to use peyote in several magical operations which he considered central to his occult career and developed a highly personalized entheogenic ritual practice combining traditional tribal, eastern meditative, and western hermetic techniques of arousing ecstasy. This presentation will examine the mystical practices Crowley combined with peyote to produce the alterations of consciousness he felt gave access to a secret source of energy responsible for creative genius, with particular emphasis upon the visionary experiences recorded in The Vision and the Voice, and the magical operations known as the Abuldiz Working and the Amalantrah Working. It will explore his personal ceremonial blending of tradition and innovation, and compare the reports of his experiences with classical phenomenological accounts of psychedelic experiences and the recent findings of scientific studies into the effects of psychedelic substances. * Presented at the 7th Biannual Conference of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE)

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